While out on a walk the other day, I received a sad and shocked e-mail from someone who thought the guy who played Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on Conan O'Brien's show had died. It wasn't until I got home that I learned it wasn't Robert Smigel who'd passed away but Robert Schimmel. So congrats to Robert Smigel for still being alive and condolences to the friends and family of Robert Schimmel.
I didn't know Robert Schimmel and didn't see nearly enough of him…but he was a very funny man with a fresh, honest way of reporting on the world. I think I even liked him being interviewed more than I enjoyed him on stage. My pal Paul Harris, who's the best interviewer on radio, has posted two audio clips of long chats he had with Schimmel and I recommend them to you. If you only have time to listen to one, listen to the second one in which he tells a hilarious — and I'm sure, absolutely true — story about his mother and a porn actor.
He also tells a story about having a colonoscopy. His doctor, he says, plays music during the procedure…so Schimmel made a funny CD for the occasion and had it played instead. It was so funny, he reports, that the doctor started playing it for his other patients. This is good to know because that's my gastroenterologist too and next time I go in for something, I'm going to demand the Schimmel soundtrack.